29. And if you examine more closely, how
great is the distinction between the married and the unmarried, and
among the latter between hermits and those who Those who,
&c. μιγάδας, cf. xxi., 10,
where μοναδικοὶ
and οἱ τῆς
ἐρηυίας are distinguished
from μιγάδες and
οἱ τῆς
ἐπιμιξίας.
Clémencet here holds that οἱ τῆς
ἐρημίας are hermits as
distinguished from cœnobites, but does not hint at any further
subdivision between the κοινωνικοὶ
and the μιγάδες. Cf.
also xliii. 62; xxi. 19. Montaut, “Revue Critique,
&c.” (pp. 48–52) attempts to distinguish between the
μιγάδες and the
κοινωνικοί.
But although he confirms the overthrow by Clémencet of the views
of previous translators, he leaves Clémencet’s own position
really unweakened. S. Gregory uses the two terms as practically
convertible. In xxi., § 19, (which Montaut misinterprets) he
explains that the life of the cœnobite is a hermit-life in its
relation to the world which he has forsaken, while it has opportunities
in community-life for the growth of those virtues which are required by
the relation of man to man. Cf. Bened. edition (Clémencet),
Præf. Gener., Pars. II., § iii. sub finem.
live together in community, between those who are proficient and
advanced in contemplation and those who barely hold on the straight
course, between townsfolk again and rustics, between the simple and the
designing, between men of business and men of leisure, between those
who have met with reverses and those who are prosperous and ignorant of
misfortune. For these classes differ sometimes more widely from
each other in their desires and passion than in their physical
characteristics; or, if you will, in the mixtures and blendings of the
elements of which we are composed, and, therefore, to regulate them is
no easy task.